UW-Madison's engineering faculty and students create through the art of science and technology. Now in their midst--across from Engineering Hall--is a work of art which expresses and commemorates that creative process.

Fabricated in stainless steel and standing 18-feet high, the sculpture "Máquina" is the work of St. Louis artist and UW-Madison alumnus William Conrad Severson.

Máquina ("machine" in Spanish) is part of a dynamic system which will ultimately include water as a liquid, vapor and solid, along with compressed air, sound and light. Water flows down off the sculpture base into a flume extending northward to the end of Engineering Mall, where it is forced up into a 22-foot-high clear column. The water then spills gently over the sides of the column and into a reflecting pool at the base. Inside the column, bubbles of compressed air can be used to create large bubbles in a "bursting" effect.

Engineering students will be the prime "magicians" conjuring these dramatic effects, said College of Engineering Dean Emeritus John G. Bollinger. "The special effects capabilities of this mall will serve as a kind of classroom for our students. We want them to have the experience--and the fun--of working with a computer-controlled system like this."

The effects are controlled from a laboratory underneath the mall. Bollinger said students will be able to vary lighting of the sculpture, laser lighting configurations in the clear column, and compressed air effects for Máquina's water circuits and in the column. Outdoor speakers add a sound dimension.

About the Artist

For sculptor William Conrad Severson, Máquina's completion is especially meaningful. "The university and I in many ways have a love affair. I very much wanted to create a sculpture at the university. Attending the UW was an important step in my life and in my father's life. My father was one of 15 children and the only one to come off the farm to graduate from the University of Wisconsin. That was a very big thing to do in 1921. Then four of his sons and many nephews followed in his footsteps. We feel so strongly that it's OUR university--we possess it in the sense of being alumni." Severson, a 1947 graduate in art, donated his artwork as part of the University of Wisconsin Foundation's Campaign for Wisconsin. Members of his extended family contributed toward fabrication costs for Máquina, and other companies and individuals donated funds and gifts-in-kind for the mall project.

An important aspect of designing the mall was making it a place where people, especially students, would feel comfortable gathering, Severson said. The design team (including mall architect Richard Cummings) "felt very strongly that this must be a student-oriented area," Severson said. "We've used pylons to define the entrance to the engineering campus, and we want it filled with student activity. Also it should be a great place to relax. It has excitement-- a dynamic attraction. Water will run as a liquid, a vapor, and a solid. It will attract people and communicate to students about their engineering role and its quite often aesthetic aspect. All those things are statements which will have a new, strong aesthetic presence."

To Severson, there is a special connection between engineering and art that comes alive in Máquina. "The form derived from a contemporary engineer's tool which is very exciting as a sculptural form. Everything about this sculpture gives a sense of force, power and control.

"Máquina represents the engineer's tools, the aesthetics of those tools, and the engineer's role in creative problem solving. After all, the great adventurers and creators of our age are the engineers."